Beyond the realm of design

Renuka Rajagopal, the director of real estate and workplace at VMware India, talks about her passion for fostering collaborative environments and cultural initiatives.

- Rashmi Naicker

Renuka Rajagopal’s initiatives go beyond simply implementing and recreating old-school approaches to workspaces. Her knowledge from her initial experience as an architect paved the way for her involvement in commercial projects and construction management. Now — with over 22 years of work experience in the real estate industry — Rajagopal lends her expertise to the rapidly growing IT industry in India. She develops and manages leading real estate portfolios, lease transactions, 24x7 facility operations, integrated facility management, and expansion and consolidation of projects.

VMware India, one of five global sub-regions for business operations, is considered as the microcosm of the company’s US based headquarters. Housing all the business verticals present in Palo Alto, the Bengaluru campus constitutes almost 20% of its global strength, making it one of the most critical centres of operation.

In the later half of 2014, Rajagopal joined VMware at a very exciting time, when the new campus building in Bengaluru — the second largest campus for VMware Inc outside of the US — was under construction. “One of my top priorities and initial agenda was to build a strong team that could bring the workplace and real estate management of India, then our newest REW region, to the next level. The focus was on harnessing existing strength within as well as building a diverse team of rich and experienced members,” she explains.

Laying the foundation for design